1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a paper recycling device and paper recycling method based on paper recycling technology using a dry method that to the extent possible does not use water.
2. Background Art
In the past, with recycling of old paper discharged from offices or the like, a so-called wet method was used by which old paper was put into water, defibrated using mainly mechanical action, and remade. This kind of wet method old paper recycling requires a large volume of water, so the processing scale has to be large to make it inexpensive. Because of that, collecting a large volume of old paper is essential, and in addition to a great deal of effort being required for preparation and maintenance of the water processing equipment, there was also the problem that a large volume of energy is used for the drying process.
However, since old paper on which confidential items are noted is also discharged from offices, from the perspective of maintaining confidentiality as well, there is a desire to process old paper within one's own office. However, since the volume of old paper discharged from a small office is small, it is difficult to ensure the volume necessary for a large scale process like that described above. Also, it is not realistic to install equipment for large scale processing like that noted above within an office. In light of that, to do paper recycling, up to now, several dry method paper recycling technologies that to the extent possible do not use water have been proposed.
For example, disclosed with the invention noted in Patent Document 1 (Patent Application Publication No. H01-148888) is use of secondary fiber sources as sheets for printing newspaper by defibrating them using a dry method, and by making the printed ink into tiny ink spots that are difficult to detect.